New leaders to be sworn in for city's firefighters' union
Jim Kenney will swear in new leaders tonight for the city's firefighters' and paramedics' union, Local 22.
Joe Schulle has seen the city's 2,100 firefighters and paramedics through a new contract, a controversial firefighter death and a sex scandal. Now, he's stepping down to return to firefighting and let new leaders take over the firefighters' and paramedics' union, Local 22.
Andrew Thomas, a hazardous materials fire lieutenant and 23-year department veteran, will be sworn in tonight as the union's new president. Union members last month voted Thomas and Eddie Marks, a retired battalion chief who spent 38 years in the department, and Mike Bresnan, a firefighter and union recording secretary under Schulle, in as first and second vice presidents, respectively. Jim Kenney, Democratic mayoral nominee who was endorsed by the union in last month's primary, will do the swearing-in at a 7 p.m. ceremony tonight at the union hall on Fifth Street near Spring Garden.
Other union leaders to be sworn in include: Jack Eltman as recording secretary, Dan Oakes as treasurer, Tom Kane as trustees chairman, Jerry Kots and Ray Vozzelli as trustees, Walter Faber and Chuck McQuilkin as sergeants-at-arms.
Thomas, a longtime union representative who's also a trustee on the Philadelphia Board of Pensions, ran against Tim McShea, a firefighter and union vice president under Schulle. "I look forward to continuing all the good things that Joe Schulle has started," Thomas said today.
Schulle was elected union president in 2013. During his tenure, he was applauded for how he shepherded the union through a barrage of bad news, including last December's death of firefighter Joyce Craig, accusations of sexual improprieties by a paramedic that resulted in the discipline of seven firefighters and paramedics and a social media firestorm after a firefighter posted a racially charged, anti-police image on Instagram.
"I am ready to spend a little more time with my family," Schulle, a married father of two teenagers, told the People Paper today.
Schulle was a battalion chief in Center City when he became union president. He'll return to firefighting July 1, but hasn't been assigned a new station yet, he said.